Do you know what the problem is in American Politics?
It isn't the left. It isn't the right. It isn't the deep state, greed, or narcissism.
It is most Americans' lack of memory.
George Santayana said it plainly: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Here's what we are about to repeat.
Congress is currently moving legislation that would merge U.S. and Israeli military development and intelligence operations. Before you decide how you feel about that, you should know the history of this particular partnership.
Israel is the only country that has ever attacked a U.S. Navy vessel and faced zero retaliation. In 1967, Israeli forces attacked the USS Liberty in international waters. Thirty-four American sailors were killed. One hundred seventy-four were wounded. The U.S. government quietly accepted Israel's "mistaken identity" explanation and moved on.
Jonathan Pollard was an American naval intelligence analyst who spent seventeen years stealing some of the most sensitive military secrets in U.S. history and handing them to Israel. He was convicted of espionage in 1987. Israel paid him a salary, gave him citizenship, and celebrated him as a hero when he emigrated there in 2020.
The Lavon Affair. In 1954, Israeli intelligence operatives planted bombs at American and British civilian targets inside Egypt. The plan was to blame Egyptian nationalists and destabilize the region. The operation was exposed. Israel eventually acknowledged it.
The FBI and CIA have both formally identified Israel as one of the most aggressive collectors of intelligence against U.S. officials on American soil. Last week, NBC News reported that the Defense Intelligence Agency raised its counterintelligence threat designation for Israel to "critical," the highest level possible. In 2019, Politico reported that the FBI suspected Israel of planting surveillance devices near the White House and other federal facilities to monitor U.S. officials. Israel denied it. Whatever happened to that investigation?
One attack on a U.S. warship. One spy inside U.S. intelligence. One covert bombing campaign targeting American civilians, blamed on Arabs. One surveillance operation aimed at the White House.
And now we are proposing to merge our military development and intelligence apparatus with theirs.
Do you remember? Because the decision-makers in Washington are counting on the fact that you don't.
What else have we conveniently forgotten?